Keyrock

And the Super Mario 3D World reviewer lovefest is upon us: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-19-super-mario-3d-world-review http://www.joystiq.com/2013/11/19/super-mario-3d-world-review-just-peachy/ http://www.gamereactor.se/recensioner/133334/Super+Mario+3D+World/ http://www.destructoid.com/review-super-mario-3d-world-265323.phtml Console envy level rising... Rising.

Hopefully the Berlin campaign winds up being a lot less linear.

Atlus Bringing Baby Making jRPG Conception 2 to North America on Vita and 3DS Bruce, how jealous are you right now? They don't even have to shoehorn in sexy time, a la BioWare or CDPR, it's an RPG based around sexy time.

Now that is some flatout awesome advertising art. They even put an Ork right in the front on account of Orks being awesome. Edit: I probably should have put this in the Shadowrun Returns thread, huh? I'm an idiot.

You'd think they would have learned something from The Witcher 2... Shame the release is so shoddy, the easier-to-get-started aspect really interested me as while I loved the idea of X3 (I rather enjoyed EVE) I found getting into it just too time consuming. It's one thing building an aRPG around a gamepad, that type of game actually naturally lends itself to a gamepad (For example, I prefer to play TW2 with my 360 pad than with m&kb, and not because of the horrid menus). Plus, TW2's interface, while clumsy, is at least fully functional with m&kb. Building a space sim around a gamepad is straight up ridiculous. A gamepad can't even begin to have even 30% of the necessary buttons to control everything in a deep, complex space sim. In order to make a proper space sim (not just an arcady space ship pew pew type game) playable solely on a gamepad you have to strip the game of many functions (check) and force most commands to be done through layers of menus (check). The only way I can make sense of the UI design is that they're working toward a Steam Machine release and want the game to be fully playable with just the Steam Machine Gamepad (I'm just going to refer to it as "SMG" from now on). It makes sense, they've been porting all their games to Linux anyway and having proper SMG support is sensible, I'm not against them making a separate control scheme for the SMG, but they should have worked on that AFTER making sure they have a proper, robust control scheme for m&kb and flightstick. The Steam Machine isn't even going to be available to the general public for likely at least another 2 or 3 months, likely longer. At least in the case of TW2 you could make an argument that gamepad is the superior control method for that game (I, for example, would make that argument, though I wouldn't be adamant about it). I don't think anyone is going to make the argument that a gamepad (even the SMG) is a superior control method for a hardcore space sim as compared to flightstick or m&kb, at least not anyone without significant brain damage. Why make control scheme for a clearly inferior input device first, especially when said device won't even hit the market for several more months, and then work to make a proper control scheme for clearly superior input devices afterward? Wouldn't it make a heck of a lot more sense to make proper control schemes for m&kb and flightstick first, then work on a separate control scheme for the SMG? Am I talking crazy here?

Making deliveries in the Shantaemobile in Euro Truck Simulator 2 (62 hours and counting). I just expanded my Paris garage to the larger 5 bay garage. Now I just need to buy 2 more trucks and hire 2 more drivers and Keyrock Logistics will be up to 10 drivers. I'm up to level 26, a couple more levels and I'll be able to buy the beefiest engine (750hp) for the Shantaemobile (Volvo FH16). By then, I should also have enough money to open up a 3rd garage somewhere.

This does indeed look like a man who has traveled to the past.

Yeah, story is not really the focus of Torchlight 2. It has a story and it's... serviceable, I guess, but the game is about killing lots and lots of things and picking up lots and lots of loot. I'd look elsewhere for story.

You won't believe this, but there's another Kickstarter for a point & click adventure game. It's crazy, I know. Here I was thinking to myself "if only there were more kickstarter campaigns for point & click adventure games", and bam, one just pops up. Anyway, it's all rather British and stuff and is about exploring the galaxy to expand the British Empire. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1236117571/her-majestys-spiffing If nothing else, the pitch video is pretty well done.

You can run some Torchlight 2 co-op, it's great loot em' up fun. Also, it's not an RPG, but Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a terrific co-op game.

It's Francis!

I'm trying to do the low expectations thing too, it's a good strategy, but it looks and sounds so good that it's trying to rope me in. Don't fall for the trap, don't fall for the trap.

The initial pitch was poorly done and made the game sound like just a dungeon crawler, while now it is becoming clear that the game is a lot more than that. The damage may be done. Hopefully it's not to late for this campaign to get going, but it;s not looking good right now.

Shantaemobile Mark II: Here's the mod if anyone wants it: http://www.mediafire.com/download/5kla7l2q8ff8lgd/Shantaeskin2.scs

Sounds like fixes/added functionality is incoming: http://www.incgamers.com/2013/11/egosoft-apologise-for-the-state-of-x-rebirth I'm going to go back to Terran Conflict for a couple of months, as implementing this will take some time and in the game's current state, building a trading empire is next to impossible (trading is my jam). Hopefully by early next year the game will be in a lot better shape.

Zinyak is an absolute delight. In a game filled with fun characters and great voice acting, Zinyak EASILY steals the show. He is a treasure.

I think Unwritten was on Kickstarter before and failed to get written. Looks like they're trying to get it written again.

I'm so jealous right now. Us Muricans haven't gotten a demo yet. That game makes it look like there may yet be a little bit of Square left in Squeenix. There are a few people from Square Enix that have been involved but other than that, the game wasn't developed by SE themselves. Well, it looks more like a Square game than anything Squeenix has published in nearly a decade.

You don't like it? I want to like it, but it's a mess. I never thought a game would make me wish for the UI from X3. The whole thought for this game was to make it more accessible to people that aren't hardcore space sim players. Somehow they managed to make it even less accessible to those people while at the same time alienating the hardcore space sim crowd which is their customer base. It will likely be a good game... eventually. It's a broken mess right now. The UI... It's so horrible I can't even put it into words.

X-Stillbirth

Same here. My flightstick doesn't have enough buttons to accommodate everything, but there is enough for all my regular flight/combat stuff. Communications, maps, obscure squadron commands, and trading commands are all keyboard buttons. Right now, in X-Stillbirth, everything is done by keyboard and mouse because of the broken flightstick support (it's a friggin' space sim, how the **** do you not make flightstick support a top priority?) Edit: Holy ****, there isn't even a key for target next enemy? What the ****!? How do you not include a target next enemy key? Damn, I guess I'll go back to playing Terran Conflict until this reaches a somewhat playable state.

The craziest part is that the consolitis excuse isn't even valid as it's a PC only game and controllers and flightsticks don't even fully function properly at this point. The UI is such a mess and for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I think eventually, once all the bugs are sorted out and the modding community rescues the awful UI it will be a great game for hardcore space sim fans, but their effort to open the game up to more casual fans is an EPIC FAIL.

I'm so jealous right now. Us Muricans haven't gotten a demo yet. That game makes it look like there may yet be a little bit of Square left in Squeenix.

Yeah, the on-foot part of the game is... awkward. Honestly, they should just not have included it if it was going to be this shoddy. This looks like something they hastily added so that they can add a line to the back of a box (ironically no physical version exists right now): * Walk around space stations and interact with its inhabitants! They should have just kept it as it was before where you'd just open a channel of communications to whoever was on the station. Whatever, the space part of the game is what really matters, and that part is quite good, even without proper flightstick support (*shakes fist*). So far the campaign is pretty awful, as per Egosoft protocol. I'd probably be better off just playing in sandbox mode, that's what these games are all about, but the completionist in me demands that I go through the nonsensical campaign at least once.